Issue 20, 2022

Influence of microchannel geometry on device performance and electrophysiological recording fidelity during long-term studies of connected neural populations

Abstract

Compartmentalized microfluidic neural cell culture platforms, which physically separate axons from the neural soma using a series of microchannels, have been used for studying a wide range of pathological conditions and basic neuroscience questions. While each study has different experimental needs, the fundamental design of these devices has largely remained unchanged and a systematic study to establish long-term neural cultures in this format is lacking. Here, we investigate the influence of microchannel geometry and cell seeding density on device performance particularly in the context of long-term studies of synaptically-connected, yet fluidically-isolated neural populations of neurons and glia. Of the different experimental parameters, the microchannel height was the principal determinant of device performance, where the other parameters offer additional degrees of freedom in customizing such devices for specific applications. We condense the effects of these parameters into design rules and demonstrate their utility in engineering a microfluidic neural culture platform with integrated microelectrode arrays. The engineered device successfully recorded from primary rat cortical cells for 59 days in vitro with more than on order of magnitude enhancement in signal-to-noise ratio in the microchannels.

Graphical abstract: Influence of microchannel geometry on device performance and electrophysiological recording fidelity during long-term studies of connected neural populations

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Jul 2022
Accepted
12 Sep 2022
First published
12 Sep 2022

Lab Chip, 2022,22, 3961-3975

Author version available

Influence of microchannel geometry on device performance and electrophysiological recording fidelity during long-term studies of connected neural populations

N. Goshi, G. Girardi, F. da Costa Souza, A. Gardner, P. J. Lein and E. Seker, Lab Chip, 2022, 22, 3961 DOI: 10.1039/D2LC00683A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements